Ghost Stories

Dog Spirit

When I was eightyears old my parents divorced and shortly after my fatherremarried a woman from South Carolina.

As he had just retired from the Navy and found there were no jobsto be had they decided to move near her family in SC, thusseparating me from my mother and the tiny private school I greyup in, and the ocean I had always lived on.

A few months before the move we(my stepsisters, stepmother, and I)bought my dad a dog for father' day. She was a six month olddoberman/german shepherd who we suspect had been badly abused andsince she was free and we were poor we took her though she had abroken leg.

The puppy and I emmediately bonded. We had hour long games of tagon the beach every day, we sang together and shared everything.She became extremely loyal to me.

Anyway we all made the cross-country move to South Carolina. Fortwo years she was my only friend.

Finally I got the opportunity to visit my mother in California. Istayed a month, but I was pagued by severe nervousness,sleeplessness, a strange rash, and nightmares about my dog. Ishould have been having a perfect time home with my friends--inmy home--away from the hellish place my stepmother's home became.

When I returned I learned that my stepsisters had been forbiddento talk about my dog though I had asked about her and told themabout my nightmares they always lied and said she was fine, whenindeed she had been missing much of the time I was gone.

My dad had taken to tying her to a tree on a choke chain to keepher in the fence and safe. The first time I saw her when Ireturned home she was on the chain stinking--like dog that hadbeen roaming the street for weeks.

The following moring I went down in my back yard and called her.My dad was in the far corner of the yard buring trash andbranches--on a new spot, different from his usual buring spot. Mydog(I can't bring myself to use her name) came to me that morning.She was clean and smelled like she normally should. I rememberrubbing her and asking if she felt better that she had had a bath.We nuzzled eachother and then I told her I had to go in andfinish my chores. I said,"Sit high" and she sat up onher haunches with her paws up and I got on my kness and put herpaws on my shoulders and we hugged as we often did.

After dinner that evening I went to feed her when my dad stoppedme and told me that she wasn't down there. I asked if she ran offagain and he told me know that early that morning he went down tobathe her for me and found her dead at the end of her lesh at thetree. She had strangled herself trying to pull off the chain. Thenew spot my dad was burning on was over her grave.

I protested. I knew I had just talked to her that morning. Theyall said it was just my imagination, but I couldn't explain it. Istill can't. Was it really just my imagintion? If this was anencounter with the spiritual world, wow what a solid feeling,what a happy feeling.

I'm thankful for having a last moment with her. I wish I hadstayed with her longer. She and I were mote closely bonded than Ihave ever been with anyone. This isn't the only expereince I haveever had, but the most vivid. For a while after I had a hard timebelieving that she was really gone, because I had seen her, heldher, smelled her, played with her.